A Great Practice of Hundreds of Millions of People in Opposing and Preventing Revisionism

OUR socialist motherland, led by the Chinese people's great leader Chairman Mao, is 25 years old. During these years, the Chinese people have firmly adhered to the revolutionary road of opposing and preventing revisionism. At the Second Plenary Session of the Party's Seventh Central Committee, held on the eve of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, Chairman Mao pointed out: "To win countrywide victory is only the first step in a long march of ten thousand li." Chairman Mao's teaching indicated the correct orientation for our Party in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. The proletarian revolution is different from the revolution in which one exploiting class replaces another. It aims at thoroughly eliminating the exploiting classes and the system of exploitation stop by step and finally eliminating classes. For the proletarian revolution, seizing political power is only the beginning of the revolution, and more arduous and more glorious revolutionary tasks lie ahead. In the historical period of socialism, there are still classes, class contradictions and class struggle. Only through class struggle and continuing the revolution under the proletarian dictatorship can the proletariat solve the question of who will win and accomplish its historical mission. Since the founding of New China, under the guidance of Chairman Mao's theory and line in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, we have adhered to the socialist road, waged a series of struggles against the bourgeoisie and its agents in our Party, deepened the socialist revolution step by step and promoted socialist construction. In essence, these struggles centred round the question of whether to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat or to restore the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, to practise Marxism or to practise revisionism. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is another big test of strength between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie on a broader scale and in a more deep-going way in the wake of many previous tests. It is a great practice by hundreds of millions of people in opposing and preventing revisionism and a development of Chairman Mao's great concept of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Propelling Social History Forward

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has promoted the development of China's social history. Facts have fully proved that "the current Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is absolutely necessary and most timely for consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, preventing capitalist restoration and building socialism." Led by the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao, the Great Cultural Revolution has mobilized hundreds of millions of people, smashed the two bourgeois headquarters with Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao as their chieftains and removed the danger hidden in the organs of the dictatorship of the proletariat, thus purifying our Party ranks and consolidating the proletarian dictatorship in an unprecedented way. In the realm of the superstructure, including every cultural sphere, the bourgeoisie and revisionism have been scathingly criticized and the leadership of the proletariat has been strengthened. Socialist new things — such as the revolution in art and literature and in education, educated youth settling in the countryside, "May 7th" cadre schools, co-operative medical service and -'barefoot doctors," contingents of Marxist theoretical workers among the masses, millions of people studying the historical experiences of the struggle between the Confucian and the Legalist schools and class struggle as a whole — are developing vigorously. In their struggle, the masses are conscientiously studying and practising Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, using the Marxist stand, viewpoint and method to study the current situation and history, linking lofty ideals and historical experience with present-day struggle, and enhancing their consciousness of class struggle and the two-line struggle so that their mental outlook has undergone tremendous changes. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has transformed those parts of the superstructure which were incompatible with the economic base and further released the productive forces. Chairman Mao's revolutionary line has struck deep root in people's minds. The revolutionary spirit of independence, self-reliance, hard struggle and building the country through diligence and frugality ha3 been carried forward further. With soaring enthusiasm, the masses of the people, emulating Taching in industry and Tachai in agriculture, are steadily expanding production in breadth and depth. Socialist China's economy is flourishing and people's living standards are rising steadily. This thriving and promising .scene is in sharp contrast to that of the panicky capitalist world suffering from serious political and economic crises. In view of the fact that the first socialist country, the Soviet Union, hah degenerated into a social-imperialist country, imperialist prophets have asserted that a socialist country under the dictatorship of the proletariat; inevitably would go revisionist and restore capitalism. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has announced the bankruptcy of this fallacy. Its basic experience shows that the most reliable guarantee for preventing capitalist restoration is provided so long as we persistently implement Chairman Mao's revolutionary line, firmly rely on the masses and consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Directly Mobilizing Hundreds of Millions of People

One of the basic features of the Great Cultural Revolution is that it has directly aroused hundreds of millions of people to wage a great struggle to oppose and prevent revisionism. "Never before in any mass movement have the masses been aroused so thoroughly and on so broad a scale." It can be said that without the full mobilization of hundreds of millions of people, there can be no Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Mobilizing the masses in breadth and depth in the struggle to oppose and prevent revisionism is determined by the nature of the dictatorship of the proletariat, Proletarian political power under the leadership of the Communist Party is a dictatorship of the vast majority-over a small number of exploiters. The fact that the masses have been fully aroused in such a way in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution clearly shows the nature of our dictatorship of the proletariat and demonstrates that our political power faithfully represents the fundamental interests of the people in their hundreds of millions. The dictatorship of all exploiting classes, including the fascist dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie of Soviet revisionist social-imperialism, is a dictatorship of the few over the majority, and there is a life-and-death antagonistic contradiction between this kind of dictatorship and the masses. The day hundreds of millions of people have been mobilized is the doomsday of the exploiting classes which, therefore, regard the revolutionary masses and their revolution as something disastrous and have a morbid hatred for them. This is the basic reason why Soviet revisionist social-imperialism, the renegade and traitor Lin Piao, the Chiang Kai-shek traitorous clique, and landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements and Rightists all have done their utmost to vilify the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Marxists hold that the people are the makers of history, "Direct reliance on the revolutionary masses is a basic principle of the Communist Party." During the stage of democratic revolution, we relied on doing propaganda among the masses, organizing them and freely mobilizing them to seize political power. During the stage of socialist revolution, we should also rely on these methods to consolidate our political power, oppose and prevent revisionism and carry the revolution through to the end. In old China, the oppression by imperialism, bureaucrat-capitalism and feudalism forced the people to live in dire poverty and without any political rights. It is only under the leadership of Chairman Mao and the Communist Party and through several decades of revolutionary wars and arduous struggles that they seized political power, were liberated and became masters of the country. Since the founding of the People's Republic, they have embarked on socialist revolution and socialist construction under the leadership of Chairman. Mao and the Communist Party, struggling to rid themselves once and for all of poverty and backwardness and prevent capitalist restoration. From their own experience they know very well that' only socialism can save China. It is precisely because of this that they are the basic force in carrying the socialist revolution through to the end, and workers, peasants and soldiers armed with Mao Tsetung Thought are the reliable main force in opposing and preventing revisionism. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has aroused hundreds of millions of people to study Marx-ism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought in struggle and grasp the theory and line of continuing the revolution under the proletarian dictatorship, and has raised' their ability to distinguish Marxism from revisionism and the correct line from the erroneous line. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is a mammoth exercise in preventing capitalist restoration and a large-scale drill in averting a revisionist accession to power. The people have braved the storm and faced the world and have been educated and tempered in this great revolution. Some people do not understand why the Great Cultural Revolution should mobilize hundreds of millions of people to directly participate in the struggle against the revisionist line. This is because their world outlook is idealist and they do not understand or accept the basic Marxist principle that only the masses of the people are the motive force in the making of world history. Chairman Mao points out: "A line or a viewpoint must be explained constantly and repeatedly. It won't do to explain them only to a few people; they must be made known to the broad revolutionary masses." It is the hundreds of millions of people armed with the Party's basic theory and line that play the decisive role in the struggle to oppose and prevent revisionism in the entire historical period of socialism. Herein lies the historic significance and principal achievement of the Cultural Revolution.

Revolutionary Unity Is the Basic Guarantee for Victory

The strength of the proletariat stems from its revolutionary unity. During the Cultural Revolution, by relying on the great revolutionary unity of the entire Party, army and people of all nationalities, we have smashed the two bourgeois headquarters, that of Liu Shao-chi and that of Lin Piao, done away with sabotage by the class enemies, overcome interference by erroneous trends of thought and won tremendous victories in the struggle to oppose and prevent revisionism. "The proletariat is the greatest class in the history of mankind. It is the most powerful revolutionary class ideologically, politically and in strength, it can and must unite the overwhelming majority of people around itself so as to isolate the handful of enemies to the maximum and attack them." Since the day the proletariat entered the political arena, it has always stressed the unity of the revolutionary ranks and held that revolutionary unity is the basic guarantee for victory. The line and policy of the proletariat is to unite with members of its own class, with its allies, and with all those forces that can be united. And it is not the line and policy of the proletariat not to stress and safeguard revolutionary unity. What the class enemies fear most is the mobilization and unity of the proletariat and the masses. They invariably cudgel their brains to sow discord and splits within the revolutionary ranks. Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao resorted to many counter-revolutionary tactics and schemes, and one of their major aims was to try to split the Party and the masses and disrupt our revolutionary unity in order to advance their anti-Party, anti-socialist revisionist line. We must maintain high vigilance against the class enemies' schemes to undermine our unity. To unite and not lo split is a basic principle of Marxism and also one of the basic experiences for winning great victories in the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution is a serious class struggle to smash the class enemies' schemes for restoring capitalism as well as a big school in which one learns the method of correctly handling the contradictions among the people. In this revolution, the principles of "unity — criticism —unity" and "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones and curing the sickness to save the patient" have been widely applied to comrades who had committed errors of varying degrees and many comrades have been helped to make progress politically. The Cultural Revolution has helped many people learn how to correctly handle differences of understanding in the revolutionary ranks, how to carry out deep-going and careful political and ideological work and how to unite and work together with those comrades who hold different opinions. Of special importance is that the Cultural devolution has given the people a profound understanding of the importance of the line and a profound understanding of the truth that "the correctness or incorrectness of the ideological and political line decides everything." This has therefore greatly heightened their consciousness of the struggle between the two lines and enabled them to apply the Party's basic tine more consciously in observing and handling problems in their work and in dealing with relations among the people. Ail this will be of far-reaching significance to future struggles in opposing and preventing revisionism as well as to the socialist revolution and socialist construction. The tremendous victories of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution have shattered the fond dreams of the class enemies at home and abroad in trying lo restore capitalism in China, greatly consolidated and fortified the dictatorship of the proletariat and built a great wall of steel among the masses of the people in opposing and preventing revisionism. This is helpful to the people all over the world. History ha3 recorded a sad lesson: Owing to the revisionists coming to power, capitalism has been restored in an all-round way in the Soviet Union, turning the socialist state founded by Lenin into a social-imperialist country. The Soviet revisionist renegade clique carries out fascist dictatorship and cruel exploitation and bloody suppression of the people at home. Abroad, they have done numerous wicked and shameless things in domineering over others and in bullying, invading and exploiting other countries. They have done every thing they could to undermine the revolutionary cause and liberation movements of the people of various countries. China is a socialist country with nearly 800 million people. If capitalism were restored in China, it would mean a serious calamity for the Chinese people and also a great harm to the world's people. The Chinese people's interests and those of the world's people are identical. The purpose of our Great Cultural Revolution is to make sure that our socialist state will never change its political colour, that China will always stand by the oppressed people and nations in the world and will endeavour to make greater contributions to mankind.

A Continuation of the Great Cultural Revolution

The movement to criticise Lin Piao and Confucius, initiated and led by Chairman Mao, is a continuation of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It is a political and ideological struggle in the superstructure through which Marxism triumphs over revisionism and the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. This movement has brought forth a host of socialist new things which are of great importance to the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Great victories have already been won in this movement. We must bear firmly in mind the basic experience of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, have faith in and rely on the broad masses, give scope to the role of the workers, peasants and soldiers as the main force, unite with all the forces that can be united, and continue to broaden and deepen the movement for a long time. Only when the masses have taken an active part in the movement can Lin Piao's revisionist line and the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius — the ideology of the decadent and declining exploiting classes — be thoroughly criticized. Only then can the great struggle of opposing and preventing revisionism be fought well. The victories of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the movement to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius have deeply convinced us that under the guidance of Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and with the direct participation of hundreds of millions of people, the cause of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat is full of promise, as is the cause of socialism and communism.

(Translation of an article in "Hongqi” No. 30, 1974. Subheads are ours.)